User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Well written post-apocalyptic story that goes back and forth between a woman in the world after an epidemic wipes out most of humanity and everything in her life leading up to it. Very compelling, nuanced protagonist. Maddening ending that could be stronger.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 starsThis book stopped me right in my tracks - literally. I read it in the span of five hours; I could not put it down. In
Severance, Ling Ma shares the story of Candace Chen, a self-described millennial worker drone who spends much of her life sequestered in a Manhattan office tower. With both of her parents recently deceased and no other family or close friends, she has little else to do, aside from going to work and watching movies in a Greenpoint basement with her boyfriend. Candace thus feels little emotion when the Shen Fever hits, a plague that renders people into non-violent zombie versions of themselves, doomed to repeat the same rote tasks over and over until they become fully unconscious. The story flashes between Candace's life before the Shen Fever hits, as well as after, when she travels with a group of survivors led by a power-hungry, authoritarian man named Bob.
Ling Ma creates an excellent atmosphere in
Severance. While reading, I felt claustrophobic, trapped, and hooked into the story all at the same time - similar to how a lot of millennials feel within late-stage capitalism. The flashbacks and flashforwards worked well here, as they served to deepen Candace's character and backstory while also propelling the narrative forward. Within this tight, gripping plot, Ma inserts commentary about the deadening, devastating effects of capitalism that strikes a skillful balance between serious and satirical. Every element of this story - the zombie apocalypse, Candace's coming-of-age, the dive into corporate life - all came together in a dark, entrancing, and unputdownable way.
I have to say my heart broke when Ma wrote about Candace's immigrant parents and how their assimilation to the United States involved the absorption of capitalism. The way she wrote about Candace's father's relationship with work and her mother's relationship with material goods felt so true to my own immigrant family's experience in this country. Taking this aspect of the novel together with a reveal about Candace that happens pretty early in the story, I appreciated how Ma weaves in understated yet powerful insights about race, gender, and exploitation of foreign labor throughout the book.
A quirky, cynical, yet important read that has made me think a lot about what matters most in my life (hint: it's leaning toward my close friends and mentees/students, not my work). The style of this book reminded me of Weike Wang's
Chemistry and Gabe Habash's
Stephen Florida , with some
Station Eleven vibes too. Highly recommended to those critical of society's emphasis on work who also want a unique, well-written story.
Rating: really liked it
Ling Ma served us a whole meal. A feast. A buffet. A week’s worth of Thanksgiving dinners made up of gorgeously subtle metaphor and allegory and motif, if you will.
https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.co...
And I will personally be stuffing myself my dear boy.
This is the kind of book that makes me wish I was still a student and I was assigned this book in an English class, and could spend a week's worth of hour-long lectures deep in discussion with 20 other people (but reasonably only four who had actually read it).
It's the kind of book I could have reread immediately after reading for the first time, and then a million times after that.
It's the kind of book that makes you think about that terrible movie with Bradley Cooper where he takes the pill that opens his brain up to full functioning, because that's the only way I can reasonably imagine being able to fully appreciate this.
The themes in this, man, the f*cking themes: The immigrant parent’s journey versus Candace’s pregnant journey in a new world. The fevered mindlessly going through tasks versus the pre-pandemic office workers doing the same. The idea of a “colony” and what that means. So, so many more.
I need to reread this immediately, is what I'm saying.
Bottom line: I want to eat this with a spoon.
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book club updatereading this pandemic novel during a pandemic for a) the self-destructive vibes and b) the book club. in that order
join the discussion here
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pre-reviewdo you remember those weird toys from childhood that were like little heart-shaped doodads with cartoon characters on them, and when you soaked them in water they turned into branded dish towels?
this book made me feel like one of those. but in reverse.
review to come / at least 4.5 stars but maybe 5
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currently-reading updatestaking a mental health test by reading a post-apocalyptic book in which the apocalypse was a pandemic featuring a virus that first appears like a cold
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tbr reviewmy face when i hear the words "anti-capitalist dystopian literary fiction": 😍
Rating: really liked it
I must be in the minority because this book fell flat for me and the ending was a huge let down.
Rating: really liked it
I relate a lot to the millenial experience of banality and monotony under capitalism; in fact, I could easily see myself in the same position as the main character, where I still go to work despite the death around me. I like that the zombie apocalypse is different in the sense that it is non-violent, and more so a mindless depiction of people following the same routine over and over again. I also appreciate the additional layer of the immigrant narrative and how the main character's feeling of "otherness" is what keeps her disaffected from the disease. But while I like these themes a lot, I still feel very lukewarm about the book and question if the author could have done a lot more, especially since the ending feels rushed and lacks any satisfaction. The commentary of people behaving like drones and mindlessly obsessed with technology and consumerism is obvious and has been done before; I would have liked to see more nuance or new takeaways, and I think the immigrant experience could have been better incorporated to make the book more unique.
Rating: really liked it
Severance is a very clever, dare I say brilliant allegory and/or modern day fable/ meditation on how we (specifically urban but in general all) humans go about living our lives. This was a Millennial novel that hit the spot for this borderline Baby Boomer/Gen Xer (I flex towards Gen X if you are interested). Ma wrote a zombie novel that seems to ask why fear the zombie apocalypse when we are already zombies? Ma takes aim at our extremely fast paced, material driven, internet immersed society and wonders what's the point. She also takes aim at traditional roles, and nostalgia and the mythologies of the "past" and the struggles of the past. For me, this was a powerful novel that looks at the life we have today and ponders the relevance.(view spoiler)
[
Summary:
Candace Chen is a "dreamer" brought from China at the age of 5. She has assumed a stereotypical role of the millennial. She is squandering her potential, spoiled, rather non plussed/ blasé about life and what it has in store. Her parents die in an accident that leaves her a significant amount of money to live on in NYC but the money is running out. She takes an uninspiring job at a book publisher as a product manager for Gemstone bibles. Shen flu is starting to take out large chunks of the population and her company has offered her a significant amount of money along with a few others, to continue showing up for work in the next year. Several young people take this offer while the older workers decide to spend their final days with their families. She holds out for the entire year while the population in NYC dwindles down to zero, pondering the nature of her job, her relationships, her life, her family, her future etc. She walks everywhere as she explores the abandoned city for her blog NYC Ghost. She finally leaves NYC and connects with a few survivors led by Bob an IT manager and would be cult leader. Bob finds out that she is pregnant and holds her captive. The end of the book finds her escaping to Chicago and walking which is a huge symbol at the end of the novel. (hide spoiler)]Ma takes aim at the superficiality of our urban myths
"Jonathan had become increasingly disillusioned with living in New York. Something along the lines of: the city, New York fucking City, tedious and boring, its charms as illusory as its façade of authenticity. Its lines were too long. Everything was a status symbol and everything cost too much. There were so many on-trend consumers, standing in lines for blocks to experience a fad dessert, gimmicky art exhibits, a new retail concept store. We were all making such uninspired lifestyle choices."
"“To live in a city is to live the life that it was built for, to adapt to its schedule and rhythms, to move within the transit layout made for you during the morning and evening rush, winding through the crowds of fellow commuters. To live in a city is to consume its offerings. To eat at its restaurants. To drink at its bars. To shop at its stores. To pay its sales taxes. To give a dollar to its homeless. To live in a city is to take part in and to propagate its impossible systems. To wake up. To go to work in the morning. It is also to take pleasure in those systems because, otherwise, who could repeat the same routines, year in, year out?”
I definitely get the point. As exciting as it sounds to be in the city. The experience culminates to something more vacuous than invigorating. But through the quotes you can see Ma is branching out from urban living to…living. With our nonsensical, material based routines. Candace is intelligent but uninspired to do anything. She's a ne'er do well. Capable but not driven because in this tale there is no consequence to failure and very minimal benefit to success. Or rather in this tale, the benefits to success are intrinsic but the definition of success changes when the system changes. This is the system we have. If it's not what we want, why on earth is the system the way that it is? Or rather from Ma's point of view, why would we tolerate it?
Candace has a typically complicated relationship with her parents. (view spoiler)
[Her mother judging her for her lack of will to succeed because she has all the benefits that her parents didn't have. Her mother forced to leave a good job in China as an accountant for America where she made wigs. Slightly resentful of the opportunities that her daughter has and doesn't take advantage. Her mother dies early and is constantly appearing in her subconscious also a key point in the novel. Her mother represents her competence, her ambition, her drive, her survival instinct. “You’re not doing too well. You barely eat. You don’t sleep enough. You don’t do things to keep your mind active. You don’t read. She says, Only in America do you have the luxury of being depressed. She says, Change your clothes. Brush your teeth. Wash your face. Moisturize. Exercise. Get yourself together. She says, Now is not the time to give up. It’s only going to get harder. You need to figure this out.”
Candace both resents and appreciates this apparition of her subconscious in the shape of her mother. (hide spoiler)]Candace has a boyfriend Johnathan who is a "free spirit". Through him Ma examines the concepts of independence, freedom, antiestablishmentarianism. (view spoiler)
[ Johnathan does not want to be part of the machine. “It was the anonymity. He wanted to be unknown, unpossessed by others' knowledge of him. That was freedom.”
He is leaving NYC and wants her to come with him. She loves him but doesn't believe that life would be good outside of the system. “What I didn’t say was: I know you too well. You live your life too idealistically. You think it’s possible to opt out of the system. No regular income, no health insurance. You quit jobs on a dime. You think this is freedom but I still see the bare, painstakingly cheap way you live, the scrimping and saving, and that is not freedom either. You move in circumscribed circles. You move peripherally, on the margins of everything, pirating movies and eating dollar slices. I used to admire this about you, how fervently you clung to your beliefs—I called it integrity—but five years of watching you live this way changed me. In this world, money is freedom. Opting out is not a real choice.”
(hide spoiler)]Constance is opting for the "dream" aka drone like existence that she also eschews but doesn't have any idea what is better.
Candance eventually joins a band of what seems to be the last folks on earth lead by an old IT guy named Bob. (view spoiler)
[Bob has a lot of pretentious, pious beliefs about the patriarchy. He's a bit of a scary cult leader or would be if there were any people left. Bob is I think representative of what Corporate America tries to uphold "Christian values" emphasis on values. Though religion was not strong in this novel it definitely lurked everywhere. But what Bob was also trying to do is restore a sense of normalcy and uphold the ideas of what is good and decent and successful (crass consumerism). Bob was part owner of a mall. As an IT person, I think the concept of Bob is brilliant. IT is filled with men who think they know more than anyone about the world because they are techy. (hide spoiler)] I think Ma has been channeling a less dense Margaret Atwood here. She "gets" the subtle but clever and strong satire.
The other strong theme with Severance was nostalgia. There is an old saying that nostalgia is a form of narcissism. Ma takes this concept to interesting places. Candace was evading thinking about the past. Running from memories of her life, her parents etc. (view spoiler)
[A theme throughout the book was the concept of going home and being with loved ones at the end of the world. Her employers in the end tried to encourage her to go spend time with loved ones. But the flu seemed to feed on nostalgia and turned people into zombies. When they focus on nostalgia, the flu consumes them. Candace seemed to avoid this until the end of the book when she gave birth to her daughter. I believe in the end, the flu got her through the love of her daughter and the desire to create a home based upon what she knew. When you look at it that way, this book is so unexpectedly profound. (hide spoiler)] Plus it is a bit of a Millennial satire. There is this atmosphere of dissatisfaction and boredom with life and people and material things. This feeling of entitlement and underachievement and at the same time desire to please the parents and respect them. To reject traditions, old ways and routines but at the same time try to respect the sacrifices endured.
I really enjoyed Severance. The novel was quite amusing and low key. Both in it's sarcastic tone and it's unexpected depth and intellectual heft. The symbolism doesn't smack you in the face, but it's not that hidden either. I think there is much more Ma in my future. She is very smart, observant, funny and wise. I would love to know what her eyes see beyond the Millennials.
4.5 Stars happily rounded upListened to the audio book and read on kindle. Nancy Wu did a fine job narrating this book.
Rating: really liked it
As usual, I'm in the minority about
Severance, a plodding post-apocalyptic story about a millennial drone named Candace Chen.
When Shen Fever sweeps through the country, killing off most of the population, Candace continues to go to work at the publishing office because she signed a contract. What else is there to do?
Her boyfriend has moved away. Her parents are dead.
Eventually, she meets up with a small group of survivors led by a weirdo named Bob, who lead them to the Facility, a deserted mall, to regroup and start a new life.
But their numbers dwindle as the fever catches up to them and Candace harbors a secret of her own that may threaten her livelihood within this motley crew.
Post apocalyptic books are popping up all over the place, which is fine and dandy, but this one was so boring. That's my main
gripe. Who knew the end of the world was so catastrophically anti-climatic?
Let me be clear; this is not a story about zombies or the end of the world but a brief look at immigration and first generation descendants and how newcomers adapt to their new country, freedom and rules.
The title refers to Candace's father severing ties with China when he left to pursue his education in the USA.
When the Tiananmen Square protests erupted, the violence and bloodshed solidified her father's vow that he and his family would never return to their homeland.
This led to simmering animosity between Candace's parents and after their deaths, Candace has gone on with her life, albeit a bit without direction.
She goes to work. She hangs out with her coworkers. She has sex with her boyfriend. Rinse. Repeat.
Candace's POV veers between the past, when her parents were alive and adjusting to their lives in America and when she immigrated later, and her current predicament with Bob and the survivors.
Candace is not likable; I didn't hate her but she was as boring as the end of the world. Her voice wasn't interesting, nor was her life.
I didn't care about her job or what she did when she traveled to China for work.
I wanted to know more about society crumbling, the sweep of Shen fever, how sick people were, the chaos, destruction, the fear. There was some world building but not enough.
There were also strange, odd descriptions about her sexual interactions with her boyfriend, Jonathan, that felt out of place. I guess it was to show how disaffected she is about everything, including intimacy, but the scenes felt gross and uncomfortable, which is part of the point, I guess.
I did love how the author compared Jonathan's penis to a sea cucumber.
Classic! I wished I had thought of that.
The writing was really good and the premise had potential but the pace was too slow, dull and Candace's voice made me sleepy.
This book just wasn't for me.
I want
scares, a survivor horror tale, being chased by zombies and/or bad guys, not a mild satire of office life or whatever this book was supposed to be about.
But then I'm dark like that.
Rating: really liked it
DNF at 32%
Rating: really liked it
An apocalyptic satire about the global onset of Shen Fever, a plague that turns people into mindless drones,
Severance follows Candace Chen as she attempts to navigate a world stripped of choice and feeling. In the main plot, Candace joins a group of survivors trying to reach a safe haven from the fever in Chicago. Along the way, Candace struggles to conceal a secret about her health, while also trying not to quarrel with the group’s self-appointed leader, a self-righteous former IT worker named Bob. Interspersed between these chapters are ones recounting the life stories of Candace’s immigrant parents, as well as ones overviewing Candace’s life as a late millennial working as a publishing assistant in NYC. The author parallels these trio of plots in clever ways: much of the novel’s wry satire comes from noticing the connections between the storylines. The book is otherwise fairly bleak, though it has a not unhopeful ending. The novel’s commentary on late capitalism and Western imperialism is sharp. While I found the last fourth of
Severance to be a let down, the rest was brilliant, and I’m looking forward to following Ma’s career.
Rating: really liked it
I feel like this book was written just for me. It’s a post-apocalyptic anti-capitalist office satire that explores so many of the themes that resonate with millennials like myself.
Candace is one of the few survivors of Shen Fever, an epidemic that turns people into non-violent zombies condemned to repeat rote tasks over and over again until they slip into fatal unconsciousness. (You can sense the metaphor already, I’m sure.)
For a few months, Candace stays on at her office job—one of the few people left—aiming to fulfill her contract so she can receive the large payout she’s been promised (and possibly even get a promotion). The absurdity of this is certainly not lost: Candace is the quintessential millennial who is expected, in spite of herself, to value industriousness and professional success above all else, to the point that she’s still hanging onto those ideals as the world around her is literally ending.
Then, of course, there are the parallels between Shen Fever victims and working millennials living under late-stage capitalism, both existences plagued by a sense of meaninglessness and routine.
Eventually, Candace leaves her job, and New York City, to head west with a small group of survivors led by a vaguely menacing man named Bob. The narrative flows between this present time and Candace’s life leading up to it. Ultimately, in her increasingly precarious situation, she finds herself taking control of her life, arguably for the first time ever.
I loved this book. It’s sharp and wry and contemporary and all the things I want in a novel.
Rating: really liked it
“The past is a black hole, cut into the present day like a wound, and if you come too close, you can get sucked in. You have to keep moving.”Ling Ma's Severance seems ever more relevant. What if we are already losing cultural and familial connection to our world before the zombie apocalypse (or global pandemic)? If that's the case, what would we have to fall back on? Severance is a zombie book with a lot going on just below the surface. In Ma's take, zombies aren't going after humans. Instead, their existence mirrors what they did before they were struck with Shen Fever. These reenactments actually empty their actions of significance (both before they became zombies and after). Ma's protagonist, Candace Chen, tries to make sense of a New York City emptied of people before she strikes out for a place called the Facility where she can presumably start over. Ma, however, makes it clear how difficult starting over can be. It's not just about survival.
“A second chance doesn't mean you're in the clear. In many ways, it is the more difficult thing. Because a second chance means that you have to try harder. You must rise to the challenge without the blind optimism of ignorance.” I really enjoyed Ma's smart and dryly humorous take on zombies! 4.5 stars.
Fantastic to have LIng Ma in Wyoming!
Rating: really liked it
Yes, yes and yes. This was exactly what I was looking for. Just enough apocalypse to make this an eerie pandemic read, but also lots of introspection and commentary on the daily grind of office life. Read the second half in one sitting. Would recommend for lovers of Station Eleven.
*This copy was sent to me by the publisher for review.
Rating: really liked it
Who knew that a book about a fever outbreak crippling civilization could be SO dull? Ling Ma has talent, but this book was so haphazard and incredibly boring. It was so infuriating reading about Candace's naivety; there were multiple instances where I uttered, "she is so dumb!" while reading about her motives and inner dialogue. All the characters were mere sketches, I honestly couldn't tell you anything more than the role they play in advancing the narrative (the 'survivors' had no distinguishing characteristics other than Bob being the 'evil leader', and even that is never given any explanation). There are some hilariously awful sex scenes in this book (references to a "Schwarzenegger dick" and describing a penis as a "sea cucumber"). Oh, and the ending is a complete eye-roll inducing cliche. The premise and opening were promising, but unfortunately for the reader Severance never finds it footing. A big let down. 2/5
Rating: really liked it
Not your standard zombie post-apocalypse. I liked the humor and Candace's detail-rich backstory, immigrated as a child from Fujian province to Salt Lake City, most of all. Her trip to Shenzhen for her book publishing job alone was worth the read.
Rating: really liked it
So I think this book is a case of the sum being greater than its parts. If you take it apart too much all it is is pieces that have been done before, apocalypse cliches, etc. But somehow the arrangement of the parts and the point of view make it a more enjoyable read for me than I would have expected if someone like Bob had mansplained it to me (ugh his character is so annoying and not even charismatic to pull of leading a group at the end of the world.)
Still I'm not sure it's likely to stick with me. My favorite scene is the moment Candace realizes there is nobody left, that she can't remember the last time she saw one of the guards. The combination of that with her NY Ghost blog is captivating.
The journey to Illinois is rather uninteresting to me although it reveals more about the fever. Yes, it's satire, but sometimes that trumps the actual writing of a solid story with a plot, and this book suffers a bit from that lack. I'd still look forward to reading what the author did next, and because of the way she organizes the pieces, the "ending" doesn't matter as much.
